Here's a turn up. The Agatha Christie Theatre Company, which has been delighting audiences up and down the country for the past decade with its meticulously-crafted versions of murder mysteries penned by the 'Queen of Crime Fiction', has itself been killed off.

What's more, we know who dunnit.

Step forward none other than Bill Kenwright, whose drive and enthusiasm - not to mention money - has enabled the company to pay homage to Christie by staging umpteen successful versions of various of her thrillers since 2006.

However, fear not. The company may now be as dead as a victim in one of those well-loved plots, but a new young whippersnapper has appeared on the scene, The Classic Thriller Theatre Company, which aims to continue the good work, this time without being limited to works by Dame Agatha.

Not surprisingly, seeing as Bill Kenwright owns the place, the Theatre Royal In Windsor hosted the first night of the new company's debut production on Monday evening.

Rehearsal for Murder, written by Richard Levinson and William Link, the prolific and award-winning duo behind such TV favourites as Columbo and Murder, She Wrote, is a very apt choice for the outfit's first offering.

It has all the well-loved and beguiling ingredients of a classic Christie murder mystery, complete with the familiar assortment of likely suspects gathered together to hear the deductions and pronouncements of a central character as the finger of suspicion points one way and then another.

But there's no wood-panelled country mansion drawing room in sight. Instead, the action is set in a deserted West End theatre in 1989, exactly a year after the mysterious death of the leading lady on the opening night of a production drubbed by the critics.

Robert Daws appears as playwright Alex Dennison, who had been due to marry to the victim and who refutes the police theory that she committed suicide.

Familiar to TV viewers from all manner of small screen roles, most notably Dr Gordon Ormerod in eight series of The Royal, he puts in a masterful performance as the heartbroken character's carefully-contrived scheme to uncover the truth is elaborately unveiled after he gathers the original members of the cast together.

Amy Robbins as the victim, Monica Welles, is equally believable as the troubled big name star nervously returning to the stage after a glittering movie career. The part involves her 'materialising' on stage several times, as well as disappearing again just as swiftly and she manages to do this adeptly and seamlessly.

Incidentally, she is also on the receiving end of what looks to be a quite painful slap across the face from fellow actor Robert Duncan. No namby pamby stage effects here, it would seem. On Monday evening the force of the blow sent her necklace flying across the stage!

She does, however, get the chance to give Robert an equally realistic-looking smack across the chops. Many in the cast have trod the boards several times with the Agatha Christie Theatre Company and return among the usual suspects with the new set-up.

Among them is Susan Penhaligon, forever associated with seventies TV shocker A Bouquet of Barbed Wire, but whose theatrical pedigree deserves greater scrutiny. As Bella Lamb, producer of the ill-fated fictional production, she has some searing one-liners, ensuring an element of humour permeates the mood of tension and suspense.

Of course, like all of its genre, the play treads that fine line between improbability and reality, but the plot has all the desired elements of surprise and suspicion and more twists than the Cresta Run.

And the outcome of the proceedings is totally unexpected. No one I spoke to afterwards, even murder mystery die-hards had managed to anticipate the ending.

All 11 of the cast, skillfully inspired by experienced producer Roy Marsden, combine to make sure this is a stunning and gripping debut for the Classic Thriller Theatre Company.

Rehearsal for Murder is at The Theatre Royal, Windsor, until Saturday January 16 , before setting off on tour.

Another murder mystery follows hot on the heels of the current production when The Theatre Royal, Windsor, stages, Francis Durbridge's The Small Hours from January 20 to 30.